rection of our Lord, and another of Venus upon the hill of Calvary.
The foregoing are the principal authentic facts which have come down to us in relation to the Hebrew-Christian church. Christianity since that day has always had a name in Jerusalem; but that name has not only been unassociated with the reality, but dishonoured by almost all things the reverse. The holy city is still trodden down by the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
That hour comes on apace. The night is far spent, and a day of unparalleled brightness is yet in reserve for "the city which shall be built to the Lord," (Jer. xxxi. 35—40,) when the religion of the Son of God, unfolding within her its highest perfection in time, will render her the joy of the earth, and write upon her walls salvation, and upon her gates praise.
Note 1.—After the extension of the Macedonian empire by Alexander, Greek having become an almost current language, it was used vernacularly not only by Jews residing in Egypt, Asia Minor, &c, but by a large number of families in Jerusalem itself. These were distinguished by the name of Hellenists, from the majority of their fellow-citizens, who continued to use Aramaic in common, and the pure Hebrew in their religious services. "Those," says
Jahn "who spoke the Aramean dialect, were thought to possess the pre-eminence over those Jews who spoke the Greek only; and they therefore strove to transmit their vernacular tongue down to posterity." This is probably the distinction intimated by St. Paul, when he calls himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Many of the Hellenists had been baptized into Christianity, and appear to have formed a church-section of themselves. (Acts vi. 1.)
Note 2.—The people known in the second and third centuries by the name of
Nazareans, probably originated in the partialities of these Hebrew Christians for the religious system of their forefathers. According to
Epiphanius, as
